Category Archives: Other

2012 for me has been the year of Portland. For the food-obsessed blogger such as myself, that is considered such a blessing. Portland is a mecca for great food. An amazing restaurant on every corner.

The sheer quantity of places I needed to try in Portland is the only excuse I’ve got for not trying Salt & Straw sooner. I knew about it. Everyone knows about it, hence the ever present line at the brick-and-mortar locations.

So after months of eating through the town and after a quick yet delicious bite at Little Big Burger, I decided that enough was enough. Salt & Straw was on call for dessert.

After waiting in line and sampling a few of the flavors, I ended up choosing Almond brittle with Salted ganache on a fresh waffle cone. Oh man, this thing was amazing.

Have you ever taken a bit into something and have your eyes light up because it was so good. On a different level with any other item in that category. This ice cream was that for me. No doubt the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Nothing is even close.

It’s the first time I’ve really freaked out after eating something since eating Doughnut Vault in the spring. I immediately texted some friends and told them that they wouldn’t believe how good it was…. to which one asked if it was better than Braum’s (it is).

I’ve since tasted some more adventurous flavors and while good, none of them can compare to the first one I had. The fact that I mentioned it in the same breathe as Doughnut Vault is about as high of praise as I can give it. If you’re in the area, you have to check it out. I wish I did sooner.

When you travel a lot for a living (or just for fun), you find that the places you visit that stick with you most are the ones that you stumble upon by happenstance.You can research as much as you want, but the ones that resonate most deeply with you are the ones that just kind of sneak up on you.

I walked by Hyppo the first time I had ever been to St. Augustine on my way to dinner. When I saw the sign said “gourmet popsicles”, I knew that we would soon cross paths. Sure enough, immediately after dinner I bee-lined there. That night I tried the Elvis (Peanut Butter, Honey & Banana) dipped in chocolate. One word: AWESOME.

On a recent weekend family vacation to St. Augustine, I got to introduce my girls to Hyppo. We downed about 20 popsicles over the course of the weekend, looking for any excuse to stop in again. All of them are made with local and organic (when they can) ingredients, all of them are awesome. They are flash frozen, meaning they’re not too hard or too soft. Above is my first of about 8 from the weekend (Vanilla Banana).